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MEMBER DIARY

Joe Straus is Working Hard to Court New Members

After reading Drew Ryun’s post today on Joe Straus, I went to the Lake Fork Tea Party link for more info. I saw that my newly elected Representative. Barbara Nash’s name was on the list so I called it. Turned out, it was her personal cell phone. She didn’t answer so I left a message. The message I left was to apprise her of my firm opposition to Joe Straus as Speaker and to let her know that this was a BIG issue with the Grass Roots and the Tea Party. I asked her to support Ken Paxton.

Much to my surprise, Representative-elect Nash returned my call about two hours later. We spoke for about 15 minutes. She told me that Joe Straus was the first to call her to tell her that she won. He also invited her to join him and others for a breakfast. He asked her in front of others what her top issue was (Voter ID) and then pledged his support for that issue. This guy really laid on the charm. I sure he did this with EVERY new Representative, which is probably why we are playing catch-up. She indicated that she would NOT support Ken Paxton (he was trashed by Straus and his buddies), but that she had NOT made a commitment yet to Straus.

I referred her to RedState to do research and asked that she consider other possibilities other than Straus. She said she would. I also informed her that Joe Straus was NOT the choice of the Republican Conference two years ago, and that he made a deal to get the Democrats and 11 Republicans to support him over the choice of the Republican Conference, Speaker Tom Craddick. I asked her what kind of conservative Republican would betray the majority of the conference to be elected by Democrats. She did not seem aware that this was how he obtained the Speaker-ship.

Finally, I warned Representative Nash that this vote would be the single issue that would define her in the minds of the Tea Party and the resurgent Grass Roots. She doesn’t want to alienate her base the first week on the job.

Final point: Barbara Nash seems like a good conservative person. However, flattery by power and friends of power can be deceptive. We need to keep making these calls as I’m sure all the newly elected Republicans have been courted for weeks now by Joe Straus. We should not underestimate the power this deception can hold. However, if Barbara Nash and others were each to get 200 more phone calls opposing Joe Strauss (courteous, but determined calls), we could win this. After all, the voter has the final say.